CSN Bay Area's lineup is stacked for opening day

Phase II of the Comcast SportsNet Bay Area build-out goes public today. The man behind it has one request for viewers: no grading on the curve, please.

"When we launch Monday, we have to look like we've been doing this for 20 years," news director Chris Olivere said last week.

A year after re-branding itself from the FSN days, CSNBA airs live from its new studio in downtown San Francisco. The set, the control center and the increase from 30 to 120 employees represent an "eight-figure investment," a company spokesman said, into cranking up the intensity of the Bay Area sports world.

Viewers will see:

"SportsNet Central," the channel's main half-hour news show, airing fresh episodes at 6 and 10:30 every night. This is where Olivere's statement stands out most prominently. We have seen some long-ago amateurish attempts at a sports show around here; this one is a fast-paced, fully staffed report that is meant to replace ESPN's "SportsCenter" in fans' minds. The anchors tonight will be Scott Reiss, who should be familiar from his work on Sharks and Warriors games all season, and new hire Damon Andrews from KTLA-TV in Los Angeles.

"Chronicle Live," a talk show from 5-6 p.m. weeknights hosted by Greg Papa and featuring a stable of local sports writers from various outlets. (The Mercury News' Tim Kawakami is scheduled to appear Tuesday.) Tonight's launch episode will feature interviews with A's prodigal son Jason Giambi and Giants ace Tim Lincecum.

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A studio for all pregame and postgame shows, which had been airing from the home stadium and therefore had been largely absent when the teams were on the road. Papa (and occasionally Reiss) will host the Giants show, with Bip Roberts and J.T. Snow as analysts; Mindi Bach and F.P. Santangelo will handle A's duties on CSN California — Channel 89 on Comcast Cable and 698 on DirecTV — with some help from Shooty Babitt.

Olivere, who is from Philadelphia, has been out here since August. He had heard about the reputation California fans have for being less than hardcore.